In a conventional computing network, a plurality of components may be coupled to a common device for power management and/or data transfer. For example, the common device may be a cradle which receives one or more mobile computing terminals. Upon connection to the cradle, the terminal may receive power therefrom (e.g., charge a battery) and communicate with a network device (e.g., a server) coupled thereto. However, upon connection or during operation, one or more of the terminals may experience a short circuit causing the remaining terminals and/or the cradle to malfunction. The short circuit results in delivery of an excessive amount of power to the shorted terminal, inhibiting operation of the remaining terminals. Also, the excessive amount of energy may generate a great deal of heat, potentially resulting in a fire or an explosion.
A conventional method of protecting against the short circuit involves terminating power delivery to each of the terminals once the short circuit is detected. For example, when a terminal short circuits, the cradle will terminate power delivery to all of the terminals connected thereto. This may interrupt operation (e.g., data transfer, charging) of the terminals which did not short circuit. A user must manually reset the cradle and correct the short circuit to reestablish power delivery to the terminals. Thus, there is a need for a system which may experience the short circuit without interrupting operation of the terminals and does not require user intervention.